PLYMOUTH Albion moved out of the bottom four and into a promotion play-off position on Saturday by beating Rotherham 20-15 at a wet and windy Brickfields.

It was the Championship club's third league win in four games and came courtesy of second half tries from backs Ruairi Cushion and Ben Mercer and 10 points from the boot of Alex Davies.

Albion were 20-8 up going into the last minute of the game but play-off rivals Rotherham scored a try with the last move of the match, after home hooker Joe Clark had been sin-binned, to secure a bonus point.

"It was a very attritional game played in difficult conditions, but one we are delighted to get four points from," said Albion's chairman of rugby Graham Dawe.

"However, we just failed at the end to limit them to zero."

Dawe, though, insisted that did not take any gloss off the win – Albion's second in a row in the league.

"No, none whatsoever," said Dawe.

"It was just so nice to get back-to-back wins in the league. We have not done that all season.

"We have now got Bedford away and we are just building to where we want to be come the end of February.

"We just have to try and keep accumulating points, while enjoying the game.

"Hopefully, crowds will also come along and enjoy the rugby.

"We did try and play some rugby on Saturday. We did get some penalties trying to play some midfield rugby.

"Full credit to the boys for looking after the ball. Our back-row were again outstanding in the rucks. Rory Watts-Jones put a massive amount of pressure on and he picked up a couple of outstanding turnovers, so full marks to the back-row. Mikey Lewis also put a lot of pressure on in the line-out.

"We just played like a team, which is the ultimate aim."

Dawe praised his side's character after twice hitting back quickly after Rotherham had taken leads.

"That is the pleasing aspect," said Dawe. "Their heads did not drop. They believed in themselves and they kept trying things and Ben Mercer's try was top drawer. Both our tries were very good."

He added: "On reflection we did control big aspects of the game, although I thought Rotherham were very good.

"Rotherham's fielding of high ball, their kick game, their power game and their ball carrying was top drawer. They kept looking after the ball, so credit to them.

"I do really rate Rotherham as a club and a team."

Albion's performance on Saturday was not as impressive as the one they produced at London Welsh in their last league outing, but Dawe felt part of the reason for that was due to Rotherham's display.

"London Welsh started chasing the game after we got two tries after half-time," said Dawe. "They chased the game from a long way out and our defensive game was a lot better. We kept everyone on the field there and made our tackles.

"Rotherham were a slightly different proportion to London Welsh."

Rotherham had started the day on the same number of points as Albion and also in the bottom four.

But Dawe claimed beating them was not more valuable than beating anyone else.

"All wins are valuable," said the Albion boss.

ALBION have been called to appear before an RFU hearing in January to explain how they ended up fielding 16 players for a brief period during their win over Nottingham at the end of October.

A mix-up with the replacements saw three Albion players come on but only two initially go off. The error was corrected at the next stoppage, but Nottingham made an official complaint to the sport's governing body.

It is not uncommon in rugby for this to happen.

The RFU themselves were fined in 2003 when England fielded 16 players for a spell during their World Cup group game against Samoa.

Albion's hearing is set to take place on January 4.